


Tea for Three

by Lexie



Category: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 02:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/302564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexie/pseuds/Lexie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kathy settles her left hand in the crook of Don's arm when he offers it, then her right in Cosmo's arm when <i>he</i> offers, and the three of them trip off to lunch together. It won't appear suspicious or strange, Kathy reasons to herself; she's being escorted to lunch by her fiancé and his best friend, who is well-known as a jokester and a friend of Kathy's as well. It will all be fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea for Three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scintilla10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scintilla10/gifts).



> Thank you to elfwreck for the beta!

"Is the line 'I've never felt this way before' or 'never have I felt this way before'?" Kathy asks, as soon as Dexter bellows cut. "Because I know the scriptwriters worked very hard on this, but I have to tell you that I like the first version much better."

"Kathy's right," says Don, planting his hands on his waist. "That line is terrible."

"I didn't say that--" Kathy protests, though she was thinking it.

Out behind the cameras and the sound technicians and the hairdresser and makeup professional, a man with a binder full of papers throws his hands up with an offended shout and storms off the set. Kathy winces, watching him shove his way past several startled-looking grips, but the dialogue really _was_ dreadful.

"--Fine," Mr. Dexter says, only sounding a little bit frazzled. "That's fine; he can go. Kathy and Don--" Kathy thinks he may be grinding his teeth, "I trust your judgment." He stalks back toward the sound room. "Quiet on the set! Roll 'em!"

Jimmy dashes out with the clapboard slate and snaps the top, then sprints back off-camera.

"Oh, Barton," Kathy sighs, and she still thinks that the name is silly, but it's easy enough to breathe it like the most beautiful epithet in the world when she's staring into Don's eyes. "I've never felt this way before!" She sags into him, fringe at her knees swaying with the movement, and he wraps a sure arm around her waist.

"Me neither, Judy," Don says, and Cosmo begins to play the familiar opening lines of the number that they've been rehearsing night and day in Don's big old house in the hills.

 _Finally_ , for the first time today -- in a day where the record player parroting the music broke (leading Cosmo and a piano to be called in while a new one was procured), the back wall of the fake nightclub nearly fell on two of the dancers, and now the scriptwriter has left the building -- things are going right again.

Naturally, that is just when R.F. Simpson comes bursting through the door with all of his usual energy, booming, "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

The set goes deathly quiet for a moment, Cosmo whacking several discordant keys and Kathy glancing at Don, and then the sound booth door opens and Mr. Dexter comes out saying, "Mr. Simpson, no, of course not."

"What I saw was terrific; just _terrrr_ ific, kids," says R.F., unaware that Cosmo is now exaggeratedly aping his every word from the piano bench behind him. Kathy stifles a laugh behind her hand, trying to disguise it as a cough. Her merriment is mostly under control by the time that Mr. Simpson looks in her direction again, though her eyes may be a touch too bright. Don, on the other hand, is grinning outright, though it isn't out of character for Don to smile like that while having chats with R.F.; she thinks he'll get away with it. "That looked and sounded great. Cosmo, how's the score for this one coming along?"

Cosmo schools his expression back into appropriate cheerfulness just before Mr. Simpson turns to look at him. "It was coming along very well, before I got drafted as a replacement record player," he says cheekily.

"Good, good. Listen, Dexter, I want to have a word with you about some potential script rewrites; why don't you give everyone a break while we handle business."

Mr. Dexter momentarily looks like he's going to whip his hat off his head and start trying to rip it apart with his bare hands, and then he twitchily smiles. "Of course, Mr. Simpson." He raises his voice into that stentorian howl that he tends to take on toward the end of a shoot. "All right, everybody; you heard Mr. Simpson! Take lunch!"

While the two of them walk off together, already deep in conversation, Kathy turns to Don and asks, "The commissary?"

"You read my mind," he says, squeezing her arm, and she smiles and goes to fetch her own coat and scarf from wardrobe. By the time that she wades her way through the rush of female dancers who had the same idea (and who are very apologetic, the moment that they realize that they're crushing Kathy Selden, movie star; it's still a reaction that Kathy can't quite become accustomed to), Cosmo and Don are talking just off-set, clearly waiting for her.

"You! I saw you when Mr. Simpson was talking! Terrible; you're terrible," she scolds Cosmo, laughing and stealing his hat off his head so that she can beat at him with it.

"Like you weren't thinking it!" he says, irrepressible as always as he tries to duck away from her and toward Don. "Don, help a fellow out here!"

"Terrible, you're terrible," Don tells him, and he hits Cosmo with his hat while Kathy laughs and laughs. She settles her left hand in the crook of Don's arm when he offers it, then her right in Cosmo's arm when _he_ offers, and the three of them trip off to lunch together. It won't appear suspicious or strange, Kathy reasons to herself; she's being escorted to lunch by her fiancé and his best friend, who is well known as a jokester and a friend of Kathy's as well. It will all be fine.

It's never strange to Kathy, but sometimes she has to sit back and think about what it would look like to other people.

* * *

"No, no _no_ ," Cosmo says, light enough that Kathy immediately knows he's joking. "That's not it at all. If I may?"

"If you _please_." She gives a perfect curtsey, which Cosmo returns, and she gives him her hand. He gallantly, gracefully escorts her to the sofa, where she sinks in beside Don, smiling.

"Maestro?" Cosmo asks, and, looking amused, Don drops the needle on the record. Cosmo gives a few shuffle steps to the song's introduction, starting to waltz with himself just enough to make Kathy smile, and then the vocals begin. "Day is ending, birds are wending, back to the shelter of each little nest they love," Cosmo sings, and Kathy claps as soon as she realizes that he fully intends to sing the entire song in a pitch-perfect impersonation of Gene Austin. Beside her, Don has thrown his head back and is laughing.

Kathy joins in on the chorus, her voice blending sweetly with his. "When whipporwills call and evening is nigh, I hurry to my blue heaven." Cosmo grins and offers his hand. Kathy takes it and lets him haul her up off the sofa and into his arms, and they dance a thoroughly ridiculous tango across Don's enormous living room. Both Don and Cosmo are dear men and fine dance partners, each a little different from the other. Cosmo is ganglier and a touch more wild, and willing to go further to make her laugh. It's the third unexpected dip in a row that does it; Kathy is laughing too hard to keep singing, and Cosmo plants a smacking kiss on her mouth and spins her into Don's arms. Don catches her neatly, grinning, and leaves her to sit on the arm of the sofa while he steps out onto the floor.

"I'll see a smiling face, a fireplace, a cozy room," Don croons, and Cosmo taps his finger to the side of his nose and points at him, approving; "a little nest that's nestled where the roses bloom."

"Just Molly and me, and baby makes three," Cosmo sings back, making eyes at Kathy and tipping his head significantly at Don on the line 'baby makes three,' and Kathy laughs as Don feigns offense and makes as if to walk away. Cosmo grabs his arm and successfully pulls him into position, one hand clasped with Don's and the other resting on Don's waist, before he can get very far. Don pulls a genial face at him and places his free hand on Cosmo's shoulder, and as they begin to waltz, Kathy takes up the thread of the song.

"We're happy in my blue heaven," she sings. Don and Cosmo are absurdly graceful as always, moving together with the ease that so often awes her and sometimes leaves her face feeling hot, and Kathy feels fondness bloom in her chest as she watches them dance and laugh at something that Don has said. Don glances toward her once, Cosmo following his look (and winking at her), and she smiles at them and waves as she hums along with the record.


End file.
